Previous research has demonstrated that the patient-provider relationship can influence compliance with prescribed medical regimens and control of blood pressure in hypertensive patients. However, little is known of what specific aspects of the relationship are responsible for these beneficial effects. The proposed research will correlate measures of compliance and blood pressure control with specific aspects of the verbal interaction between hypertensive patients and physicians, as measured by a taxonomy of verbal response modes, developed and tested by one of us (Stiles). Previous research applying this coding system to initial interviews of physicians with a diagnostically heterogeneous sample of patients showed that a) the system reliably measures medically relevant aspects of the interaction, and b) certain verbal response modes are positively correlated with one health outcome--patient satisfaction. We will apply this system to interviews of 11 community clinic physicians (or physician assistants) with 230 hypertensive patients. These interviews have already been gathered, transcribed verbatim, and scored for drug information-giving by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine's National Research and Demonstration Center. After seeing the physician, patients were interviewed at three points in time to assess their comprehension of their medical regimen, attitudes toward treatment, compliance with medication taking (pill count), and blood pressure control. We will test whether the verbal response modes that predict patient satisfaction also predict compliance and blood pressure control in hypertensive patients. We will also systematically seek other verbal interaction predictors of positive outcomes, taking into account drug information scores and possible differences among ethnic and sociodemographic groups in what kinds of interactions are beneficial.